


Morning

by Chrisoel



Category: Longmire (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26989027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrisoel/pseuds/Chrisoel
Summary: Turns out Cady doesn't have to invite her father over, he's standing in front of her door the next morning uninvited. "Morning, dad!" she shouts as she opens the door. Walt looks a bit astonished to be greeted at this volume, but she has to make sure Mathias in her spare room hears her so he can do the sensible thing and hide.
Relationships: Cady Longmire/Mathias
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	Morning

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Little Mystery to Figure Out](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191433) by [lodessa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lodessa/pseuds/lodessa). 



> A little sequel to the story "A Little Mystery to Figure Out" by lodessa, which I recommend reading beforehand. The first sentence in italics is a direct quote from that story.

_“You could always invite him over for breakfast,” he banters back, “I’m sure that would go over really well.”_

Turns out Cady doesn't have to invite her father over, he's standing in front of her door the next morning uninvited. And while getting a rise out of him seemed like a fun idea yesterday, she isn't sure she can handle it right now.

"Morning, dad!" she shouts as she opens the door. Walt looks a bit astonished to be greeted at this volume, but she has to make sure Mathias in her spare room hears her so he can do the sensible thing and hide.

"Just making coffee, come in!" she ushers her father into her kitchen as fast as possible.

"I wanted to ask whether you'd like to go the..." Walt doesn't finish his sentence, because Mathias - apparently not in the mood to do the sensible thing - chooses this moment to shoulder past... dear god, he's shirtless!

"Morning!" Mathias says in a voice that can only be described as "chipper" and begins to fill the tank of her coffee machine as if this is an everyday occurrence while both Longmires stare at him.

"What..." Walt splutters, "What... is this?"

"What does it look like?" Cady asks, taking the ground coffee out of her cupboard, standing closer to Mathias then strictly necessary.

While she is suddenly extremely pissed at him (because this is _nothing_ like it looks like, and oh, how she wishes it was!), she is not pissed enough to let him face her dad's ire. Making her dad think she has a thing with Mathias might be a little dangerous but is still fun. If Walt should get it in his head for even a second that Mathias is in her house half-naked without her explicit consent it's crossing the line into lethal.

"I... you..."

Before Walt can regain the ability to form complete sentences, Cady's cellphone rings and she has never been more thankful for Ruby's uncanny talent to locate the closest person to Walt who is equipped for life in the twenty-first century.

"Vic needs you at the Busy Bee, a group of tourists decided to start a brawl, sounds really urgent." she drags her father to the door.

"Mathias!" Walt manages to spit out, trying to keep hold of the door frame.

"Is currently making coffee, yes, I know."

"But..."

"Urgent! Vic needs help!" she trills and shoves him towards the stairs leading out of her property.

Mentioning Vic seems to do the trick and, while still bewildered, he makes his way to his car.

"What," Cady asks in a sharp whisper so there's no risk of her dad hearing her from the street when she has closed the door, "the hell?!"

She turns to Mathias who has followed her into her living room, mischievous grin on his face. He drops it the second he realizes she's not amused, though.

"Sorry, I was just thinking..."

"That I would surely appreciate having to deal with my dad throwing a fit over me sleeping with you even though I didn't get the nice bit out of that deal?"

Shit, she should not be talking before her first cup of coffee. Face burning she starts towards the kitchen but stops in her tracks when she registers the look on his face. It's yearning desire and suddenly she knows that she wasn't the only person lying awake last night in this house, fantasizing. If just one of them had been a tiny bit more impulsive at the right time...

"I can make sure you get the nice bit, too." he says and looks mortified the next moment. "Jesus, I've just added a new highlight to my list of shitty pick up lines!"

"It's working though." she says without thinking and buries her face in her hands.

"Coffee", she says desperately, "we both need coffee! And a shirt. You. You need a shirt. _I_ need _you_ to wear a shirt."

"Right." he says, laughter in his voice, and vanishes into the other room.

She goes into the kitchen, retrieves two mugs and rubs her face. She doesn't know what has gotten into her. She hadn't thought about the two of them together before yesterday night, not really, and still here she is.

"Can I blame my behaviour on the fact that I'm generally overworked, overtired and haven't got laid in months?" she asks without looking at him, hearing his footsteps aproaching.

"You can if I'm allowed to do the same."

"Deal." she hands him the mug.

He rests his shoulder against the door frame and they sip their coffee in silence.

"So what do we do about this?" he ask after a few minutes.

She opens her mouth, realises she doesn't know what to say and shrugs embarassed. He has lowered his eyes to his mug. He starts speaking and his cellphone intrupts them.

She watches him close his eyes. She knows how this will play out: he'll answer the call, it will be duty and he will be on his way to the rez without delay because that's who he is. She knows it, she expects it and it's what she respects him for.

He opens his eyes. Gives her a sad smile. Downs his coffee and leaves her house without another word for her.

* * *

Through something akin to a miracle Cady manages to dodge both her father and Henry for the next weeks. She has never deleted so many voicemails.

She catches glimpses of Mathias often enough to know her dad hasn't killed him yet, but he doesn't call or text her. She tries to suppress her disappointment. She thought it would fade, that it actually was just a mix of work stress and sexual frustration that drew her to him so much but she finds herself missing him.

Then she arrives at the law clinic one morning and finds a message in just the style of the one Mathias got, sprayed all over the front of the house.

Mandy waves at her, brush and water bucket already in hand.

Cady turns off the engine, stares at the letters. "Fuck you all." she murmurs, pulls out her cellphone, and dials Mathias' number. He answers after the second ring.

"Got a lovely message on the front wall of the law clinic. Same person as the one on your paint job or at least someone with the same opinions."

"Great." he says, "we're already staying as far away from each as possible while both working on the rez and still?"

"Yeah." she says and takes a deep breath, "If people think we're shagging no matter what we do, why aren't we actually?"

He's silent for so long she's cringing with embarassement over having misjudged his interest so badly.

"That," he says then, "is an excellent question. Which I can only answer with 'Because so far we've been stupid.' Let's change that. We can work ourselves into early graves for people who don't appreciate it while being miserable or do so while having at least something nice in our lives. Pending any catastrophies I'm free tonight. I recommend your place, mine still doesn't have a roof."

"You could have tried to sell that as romantic with clear view of the stars."

"Missed that chance." he laughs.

"Come over to the law clinic tonight, I still have some lumber left from the repairs here. We'll look for pieces we can use to repair that roof. I'm handy. Did all the repairs to this house too."

"'Looking for pieces of lumber' is what kids nowadays call it then, got to remember that."

Now she laughs and catches Mandy watching her with an extremely curious face.

"Got to go, see you tonight."

"Looking forward to it."

Cady hangs up and gets out of her car.

"Don't get me wrong, I know the two of you are professionals, but is there _any_ truth to it...?" Mandy asks.

"Not yet."

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my mother tongue, so please excuse any linguistic errors.


End file.
